And, sometimes, “it’s pretending to be the only responsible adult, but that’s only when all the staff is away.”

A BULLDOZER?

“But mostly it’s moving paperwork around with a bulldozer.”

That’s some operation up there on the third floor, it sounds like.

In fact, it’s Jessica who works on fund drive prep with Membership Coordinator Adriana Kelly, she works with Development Director Cynthia Tweed on tracking the capital campaign and other special projects, she’s the traffic director and copy editor for on-air business supporter announcements in conjunction with Account Executive Melissa Seibold.

“Jessica’s indispensable and the funnest person on the third floor,” Kelly said. “She’s low key, the house mother, no drama.”

“Oh, lots of drama but it’s fun drama,” Faulks interrupted.

“She started as a membership volunteer who became so valuable we had to create a job for her,” mused Kelly.

For the past five years or so, Faulks has been the “go to” person on the development staff.

“Jessica is the glue that holds the third floor together,” noted Seibold. “Well, at least the KVMR Development Department on the third floor.”

According to Seibold, “She is indispensable for underwriting, that’s for sure.”

THAT WORD AGAIN

Hmm … there’s that word again: Indispensable.

If there’s a late copy change for a business, Faulks is there to cut and paste, for instance.

“And once I’ve sucked all the work out of the third floor, I move down here (first floor) and scrounge around,” she joked to a wounded employee as she was putting a band-aid on the staffer.

No joke here though.

“Okay, in junior high school, it was my dream to be working at a radio station some day,” Faulks admitted. “Now look at me. This place is so cool.”

Jessica grew up in Sacramento, went to the same high school and had the same high school teachers “as my parents did so I had to get out of there, not wanting my son to have the same fate.”

There’s another grin.

In between, she worked for the census bureau, had her own construction company, did retail, and, yup, food service.

“I’m just the Jill of all randomness,” she said with a smile, which figures. Faulks seems to be continuously laughing with herself, and that sense of humor rubs off on most everyone.

“I mean I don’t like to sit still, so (KVMR) got me a standing desk. How about that?”

Faulks describes her partner Josh as “part Viking” and their 9-year-old son Kai as a major “Fortnite dancing” fan.

BALLS IN THE AIR

To Development Director Tweed, “Jessica’s the rock that keeps our department up and running when we’re throwing a bazillion balls in the air.”

Not only that, but she’s the “Printer Whisperer” who makes it work.

“That’s when the rest of us are ready to throw the printer out the window,” explained Tweed.

New KVMR General Manager Ali Lightfoot simply called Faulks “awesome. She’s a superstar.”

Sounds rather indispensable. There’s that word again.

“What? Other duties as assigned?” Faulks goofed.

On The Air is a weekly irreverent look at Nevada City’s volunteer-driven, eclectic community radio station at 89.5 FM and streaming at kvmr.org. The station now features NPR’s “Morning Edition” 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. weekdays and “All Things Considered” 3-6 p.m. on The Bridge 105.7 FM, plus KVMRx in the evenings 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. An easy-to-use archive of all KVMR shows is at archive.kvmr.org.

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